The sport of paintball has become increasingly popular since its inception in the early 1980's. Adapting paint marker guns previously used for marking trees and livestock, players have developed a series of informal and formal games in which opposing individuals or teams seeks to score points either through hitting a competitor with a “shot” or by hitting targets. Players may also act out military-style fantasy games in a safe manner through the sport of paintball. Because of the fast-paced excitement of the game, the sport of paintball has become popular worldwide, with millions of participants, organized events, and even professional leagues. As with many other sports, with improvements to paintball guns, gun loading systems and protective equipment, advances in technology have enhanced both the enjoyment and safety of the sport of paintball.
For casual and advanced players, the typical set of gear used in a game includes a paintball gun, paintball ammunition, and protective clothing and eyewear. Such paintball guns are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,609 to Tippman and U.S Pat. No. 4,936,282 to Dobbins et al. Typically, paintball guns include a semi-automatic loading system comprising a paintball reservoir on the top of the gun into which paintballs are poured, and which operates as ammunition storage. Individual rounds are fed from the paintball reservoir into the firing chamber of the gun either by gravity feed or by a motorized feeder. Motorized feeders are especially popular with advanced players as the number of rounds that can be fed per minute is greatly increased over gravity-fed loader systems, allowing the player to take more shots in a given period of time. Thus, the ability to load and fire a paintball gun rapidly is a highly desirable feature of equipment for use in the sport.
In preparation for a game, players will fill the paintball reservoir on the gun with paintballs. Advanced players, and especially those in competitions will also carry additional paintballs, typically in portable plastic canisters or tubes, adapted to fit onto a belt worn by the player. Once the player uses up the paintballs in the paintball reservoir, they will add additional paintballs by opening a portable canister and then pouring the contents into the paintball reservoir. This type of reloading system requires time to open a paintball canister and the hopper and then pour the contents into the gun. This process of manual reloading means that during reloading, the process of opening lids and pouring paintballs occupies the player's attention. Therefore, during reloading it is awkward to fire the paintball gun, and the player is especially vulnerable to attack by other players. As the game of paintball frequently involves fast play and intense action, these distractions and down time place a player who is engaged in the process of reloading at a distinct disadvantage relative to their opponents. Further, reloading often must be done at inconvenient times such as when the player is under attack, or in the middle of an offensive tactical maneuver.
Additionally, pouring paintballs from a portable canister into a hopper is not a precise operation, and prone to errors such as the spilling of paintballs on the ground. Spilled paintballs are invariably discarded, as there is not time to retrieve them during the course of play. In addition, spilling paintballs results in a reduction in the number of shots a player has to use in a game. Similarly, once the lid has been opened on a prior art paintball canister, their is risk of spilling the entire contents of the canister, requiring the player to spend more time reloading, and resulting in further waste of ammunition. U.S. Pat. No. 6,234,157 to Parks is directed toward the problem of spilling paintballs. The Parks patent discloses a portable canister with a petal-shaped valve on one end that opens as the canister is inserted into a compatible valve type opening on a paintball reservoir, which also opens as the canister is inserted. When the paintballs from the canister have flowed into the paintball reservoir, the canister is withdrawn and the opening on the paintball reservoir closes.